Never The Same
by pterascreams
Summary: After having the power of a ranger, and regaining it with no use for it, you are never the same.


**Disclaimer: **Power Rangers belongs to Saban Entertainment, BVS Entertainment Inc., Renaissance Atlantic Entertainment, Village Roadshow KP Producations Limited, ABC Kids, ABC Family, Disney, etc. I do not claim any part of what I write or any character that I use that is from the show, I only claim my own original work and the characters I create.

**A/N:** Alright, since this fanfiction will mainly be about Kira Ford, I thought I would update everyone on what she has done since she left Reefside. Yes, Kira left Reefside, and now resides in New York, New York. She works as an assistant for her older brother's boss, and is still hoping to find a record company that doesn't want her to change everything about herself and her music just to sign her. Her hopes are currently getting crushed. She lives in an apartment that her brother helped her find. She went through the events of the episode 'Once A Ranger' of PROO almost a year ago from the present time. I guess that should about cover the basics, I hope you guys enjoy the story.

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A loud blaring noise invaded the sleep that Kira was trying to obtain. Her eyes opened slowly, and she glanced up at the source of the noise, her alarm clock. 6_:30 already _She thought as she reached up and turned the alarm off. She had once thought that once she was out of high school that she wouldn't have to get up so early anymore, she now realized how very wrong her previous thoughts had been. In the five years she had been living in her new home of New York, she had managed to hold on to a job that usually had her up early. Like clockwork her cell phone began to chirp just minutes after she had been awoken, she sometimes wondered why she even bothered to set the alarm. She didn't have to look at the name on the screen to know exactly who it was, Mandi Carlson, her boss. She had ,as she usually did, decided she would be going into the office early, and she wanted Kira to bring her her usual order from Starbucks. After a brief chat to confirm Kira's suspicions, she was off the phone and getting dressed. She quickly threw on a pair of black jeans, and a white shirt with a yellow jacket. Once she was presentable she was out the door, and on her way to Starbucks. She walked quickly through the streets, rounding two corners before coming up on her destination. The clerk behind the counter seemed just as tired as Kira felt, so she offered him a friendly smile before ordering a large black coffee for her boss, and a large iced mochaccino for herself. When he finally brought her the order she paid using her credit card, and was out the door before he had finished telling her to come again. She now stood out by the street, and signaled for a taxi. Luckily, it wasn't but a minute or so before a cab being driven by a middle-aged man stopped to give her a ride. She told him her destination, and held onto the two cups of coffee while he drove. Finally, they were stopped right in front of the large office building where Kira worked. She paid the fare, and headed inside, making a beeline for the elevator once she was inside. It was not a surprise to see that there were already a few others there, most of them assistants like herself. She rode the elevator up to the fifth floor with two quiet, and somewhat preoccupied men who looked as if they could use a sabbatical. She was more than happy to be off and into the hallway on the most familiar floor in the whole building to her. She walked past the first three doors to her right, and turned in at the fourth. Her presence was immediately noticed by Mandi. She smiled up from the vast amount of papers on her desk up at Kira and reached out for her coffee.

"Good Morning Kira, and thanks again for grabbing my coffee, I don't think I could get through the morning without it." Mandi stated as she took the coffee into her hands, and took a long sip after she was done speaking.

"Morning Ms. Carlson, and it's no problem, I needed to grab myself a cup too, I can't function without it either." Kira replied with a smile lifting her own cup into better view for a moment, before taking her first sip.

The cool liquid was refreshing and it felt good going down. Kira took her seat at a desk in the corner of the office and looked for her agenda for the day. Mandi always had it typed up and waiting for her every morning. Once she found it she glanced down at it for a few moments, noting everything she would have to be doing anytime soon mentally.

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The day went by in a blur, and by lunch time Kira was more exhausted than she usually was. _I haven't even done that much more than usual today, why am I so tired? _She thought absently. Mandi had a crucial lunch meeting that was supposed to last for a couple of hours, and since Kira had finished pretty much everything from her list, she had instructed her to take the rest of the day off, but to keep her phone on just in case. Kira wasn't sure what to do for the rest of the day, but she thanked Mandi and headed for home. On her way home her phone rang, she figured it was Mandi and that she had forgotten something. She opened the phone and held it to her ear.

"Hello?" Kira answered, waiting to hear her bosses voice, and surprised when it was her brother Tyler's voice on the line instead.

"Hey Kira it's Tyler, Stacy wanted to know if you were free this afternoon, I told her probably not, but I promised to call anyways." He explained. Stacy was Tyler's fiancée, and she was always looking for some free time to spend with Kira to get closer to her before the wedding. However, with Kira's schedule, free time was an almost extinct concept to her.

"Well, actually, I am. Mandi is busy for the rest of the day, and I finished everything I needed to get done for the day early. Hey, are you guys home now?" She asked, happy to have a chance at plans, she usually spent most of her time, that she wasn't working, alone these days, and the isolation was getting to her. She waved down a cab as she awaited an answer.

"Yeah, and Stacy is excited that you can finally spend some time with her, she really wants you to approve of her, she knows how close we are, and she wants to be close with you too." He finally replied, the serious and sincere tone was hard to miss. Kira knew that she had a lot of influence on her brother, because, as he had stated, they were very close. She also knew the feeling of wanting to be accepted, so she sympathized with her future sister-in-law.

After Kira gave the cab driver directions to her brother's house she responded saying "I've been meaning to spend some time with her too bro, but you know how busy I've been. Mandi has me running on some crazy schedules lately, but I guess I can't get too upset about that, it is work after all."

"Yeah I know, I'll see you in a few okay, bye sis" He returned.

"Okay bro see ya, bye" She said, and then hung up the phone.

It was a long ride in the back of the unpleasant smelling taxi to her brother's house on the outskirts of town. He preferred living away from all of the hustle and bustle of the town, Kira didn't have that luxury, it was much easier for her to work and be on time to work if she lived in town. As she laid her head back onto the headrest trying to ignore the odor coming from the front half of the vehicle as much as possible she sighed. Her life was not as simple as she made it out to be, it wasn't just work, work, work, family, sleep, work, like most around her thought it was. The truth was she wasn't tired from work as much as she was tired from her home life. The short amount of time she had nothing else to do. As she thought about this her gaze fell to her wrist where the bracelet which held the yellow dino gem always stayed. Since she had gotten her powers back, things had been rough. Though she had missed the powers, she had been glad to try to get back to a normal life after she had lost the powers in high school. When she went to aid the Overdrive rangers in defeating Thrax, and got her powers back, she felt as if a small part of herself that had left her was back. She felt strong again, but she had found that once she made her way back to New York, that having the powers with no use for them was ten times worse than no longer possessing them at all. She wished that she had someone to talk to about this, but even though the Overdrive rangers, and her fellow 'retro' rangers had told her they were there to talk to over the phone anytime, she didn't want to interrupt their lives, not for her to babble on about what she was feeling, they had lives after all. She had tried to keep in touch with the gang from high school, but it had been almost two years since she had been in any form of contact with any of them, and they had no clue that she once again possessed her powers. That was unless Adam had filled Tommy in on the whole thing, that was possible. Whether that had happened or not she didn't know. All she knew was that once you had held the responsibilities that came with being a ranger, things were never exactly the same. You looked at life differently. Kira was trying to accept this, and though it was hard, she would never give up, a ranger didn't give up.

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Kira finally arrived at her brother's house, and was about to pay the fare for the ride, but Tyler beat her to it. He must have heard the vehicle pulling up, and he was already out the door and paying the driver when Kira brought herself out of her thoughts and back into reality.

"Bro, I could have taken care of that, Mandi does pay me after all." She remarked as she walked with him up the walkway and into the house. She was greeted at the door by Stacy who enveloped her in a hug. Kira returned the hug and then turned to hug her brother.

"It is fine Kira, it was the least I could do, my place is quite a drive from downtown." He returned in a matter-of-fact tone that closed the subject.

It wasn't long before Stacy had her out of the house and back in town. Since Tyler had some business to take care of it was just the two of them. They were now entering a small diner to grab some lunch. Once they were seated and their orders had been taken Stacy turned to Kira whose head was in her hands as her mind was wondering back to the thoughts from the car.

"Hey Kira, are you okay?" She asked, the concern apparent in her tone.

Kira looked up and offered the woman seated across from her a smile. "I'm fine Stacy, just a little tired I guess" She returned with a giggle.

Stacy relaxed from her worry and shook her head with a smile across her face. "You need a vacation Kira, you are running yourself ragged working all of the time." She stated in a sincere tone.

_A vacation. _Kira thought, it wasn't as if the thought hadn't crossed her mind before, but there was simply too much to do. "I guess I could use one, but I can wait longer, until things at work ease up a bit" She finally replied. "I wouldn't want to leave Mandi hanging" She added thinking of her often over-stressed boss.

"Well Kira, I'm sure Mandi can get along with out you for a week or two. In fact I know that she can, Tyler talked to her about it last week, and she agrees, she thinks you deserve a vacation, and said you could take one at any time." Stacy returned, the grin broadening on her face. "Tyler and I were hoping you would take it for the next two weeks, so that you could be back in time for the wedding, we kind of have a surprise for you about the vacation." She added.

Kira raised her eyebrows for a moment, shocked slightly. "Stacy, you guys didn't have to do that, I would have been fine. Thanks, and yeah I guess I could use a vacation, but you guys didn't have to do more. What's the surprise?" She asked, not hiding the curiosity in her voice.

Stacy's face showed that she was pleased that Kira was happy. "I was hoping you would be happy, and the surprise is that we have a trip planned for you, if you want to take it. We have the reservations set up and everything." She explained.

Kira smiled, still in shock. "Where?" She asked, wondering where they would be trying to send her to relax.

"Well Tyler says that he's been noticing that you've been a little down lately, and we figured you might be homesick, so what do you think about going to Reefside?" She asked.

Kira couldn't believe it, not only was she getting a vacation, but it was to the one place she knew could help her get close to that sense of normalcy that she had been longing for. "Thank you, and tell Tyler I said thanks if you see him again before I do. You guys are the best." She replied.

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That night as Kira went to bed she thought of the next two weeks to come. In two days she would board the plane that would return her to her hometown of Reefside. She stared up at the ceiling for the longest time, her mind replaying the memories of her youth. _Maybe I could use this vacation _She thought, and then she slipped off into unconsciousness for the night.

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**A/N: **Well this is where I will be coming to a close with this chapter. I am sorry it isn't very interesting, but I promise as the story progresses it will be much, much more interesting. Thank you for reading, and I look forward to any reviews.


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